Happy LOTR-filled Holidays!

When I watched The Hobbit in 2D back in the Philippines, a handful of people urged me to watch it in 3D.  I will say this again, I am not the biggest fan of 3D.  I haven't watched a lot of them; those that I did watch in 3D, I disliked.  I'm pretty content with 2D plus it's cheaper.

But since coming back to the States - and to be fair, it's The Hobbit... I'll watch it 10 times in the theater if need be - my mom and I decided to IMAX the thing.  I know that the movie is in fact shot in 3D so it should be better than those movies "converted" to 3D.  Oh man, I so want to see it again! In 3D!

(If only the other LOTR movies were shot in 3D.  Just imagine how Legolas' hair would translate.)

Since it was my 2nd time watching it, I focused on specific aspects of the movie.  On the first run, I tend to enjoy it for what it is and judge how faithful it is to the book.  This time around, I got to enjoy the music, the scenery (and remember if I've seen that in the other movies lol), as well as random stuff like where have I seen this actor before and whatnot.  I go even geekier, if that is even possible.  (Yes, it is.)

You are a Lord of the Rings addict if you know which race is coming up next based on the background music.

Indeed.  I have a torrid love affair with Howard Shore's score for LOTR.  Especially the one for all the Rohan scenes.  Even my mom is in on this.  She said that the theme for the elves reminds her of Haldir.  And rightfully so because you can hear it during LOTR:TTT when Haldir and his army of elves lend a hand to Theoden at Helm's Deep.  See, we do have a geek vein in the family.  (Watching LOTR is a bonding activity among the Tenmatay family.)

Anyway, I love the score for this as well.  It's new and different but familiar at the same time.  The dwarves singing a direct passage from the book gave me goosebumps.  How I wish they let Legolas!Orli sing.  Legolas has a crapton of songs in the book.  I can imagine how awkward it would be to see it on screen.  Think... Elessar!Viggo singing at his coronation hahaha.  I never am comfortable watching that.  But I digress.  I love the musical choices in this movie so far.  And good choice in using Tolkien's own words.


And then Christmas came along.  I want to forget this year's Christmas for very personal reasons so I won't even attempt to write about it.  A wonderful thing about it was I counted down to the 25th by rewatching the whole trilogy... extended with audio commentaries!

Not all of it though.  I mean, I wanted an excuse to play my DVDs.  I audio comm'd FOTR and TTT but I only watched the theatrical release of ROTK.  I do have all 3 in the 4-disc format but my ROTK is from a different region.  I think my aunt bought it from another country while the first two were from the US.  It sucks.  I can't play ROTK.  I do have a copy of the extended version on my external HD but I want to go back to DVDs.  Either I buy an ROTK 4-disc with a different region or I buy a multi-region DVD player.  Bummer.

(I used to have all 3 movies in VCD, 2-disc DVD, and 4-disc extended but I gave away my VCD copies to a celebrity I interviewed back in high school.  Brad Turvey, wherever you are.)

The happiest that my Christmas 2012 got.

I never intended to have Tolkien/Peter Jackson to end my year.  It just happened.  After my epic LOTR Christmas marathon (I've decided to make it a yearly thing), my mom and I went to my favoritest place on the planet: Universal Studios Hollywood.  I fcking LOVE this place.  I used to go there all the friggin' time.  But this year, would you believe that December 26 was the first and the final time I went to Universal for 2012?  I fail.  I missed it so much.  I missed people/tourist watching!  And I missed the Studio Tour.  King Kong 3D... I'd go ride that tram over and over just to experience that part of the tour again and again. 

As you know, King Kong is directed by Peter Jackson and he had a hand in creating that part of the tour.  The LOTR connection didn't stop there.  Hot Topic was having a Boxing Day sale where all of their shirts were $10.  I got two, one with Gandalf's face and the other one is probably my new favorite tee shirt.

I already wore it yesterday at a post-Christmas party at a friend's house.  I'm not much for quote shirts or merch but I make a few exceptions.  Boromir is one of them.  There was another one that went, "I went to Middle-Earth and all I got is this ring" or something like that.  I was thinking of getting that BUT then I saw this.  This trumps everything.  "One does not simply walk into Mordor"... I dare you not to hear that in Sean Bean's sexy accent.  I also got a keychain of Thorin's key.  ;)  See my wishlist for other LOTR-related wants.  Hahaha!

I also started re-reading The Hobbit.  After some thinking, deciding to drop the book that I was trying to find the interest in reading and digging this one out from the shadows.  If you want to read Tolkien, better start with The Hobbit because it is by far the easiest to read.  And it is funny, too.  Plus if you've seen the movie, the reading will go by much faster.

"Lyrics" to the video above

Is it okay to say that I want to watch the movie again in 3D?  Provided I've seen the first three films more than I could count, I better start with this one now.  Right?  RIIIIGHT?!  ;-)

PS: I don't know if you've noticed bu the supposedly Elvish-made blades such as Glamdring and the Orcist do not glow blue at the presence of orcs and/or goblins in the movie.  Only Sting, Bilbo's sword did.  Glamdring never turned blue in the LOTR movies.